


As Dark As The Fallen Stars

by etoilecourageuse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Betrayal, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Loneliness, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 08:39:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8198558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etoilecourageuse/pseuds/etoilecourageuse
Summary: The three sisters once loved each other, but now they seem to be nothing but strangers to one another.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [garnet_dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/garnet_dragon/gifts).



> Dear Komadori, I really, really hope that you like this! It was a HUGE pleasure getting to write for you, even I had lots of difficulties in deciding what to go with in the end - we matched on two fandoms, TONS of characters, and generally many awesomely dark tags! 
> 
> In the end, my fic took a bit of a different turn than what I'd at first expected, but I'm definitely proud of how it turned out... Again, I really hope that you'll enjoy it!

They had once loved each other. Perhaps they did still, perhaps there was still love within them, such love for one another. Weren’t they sisters? Weren’t they daughters of the same parents, hadn’t they once shared a life, laughing together, and suffering alike? They had once loved each other… They had loved each other so beyond belief… 

But life had become unbearable for them, after their father’s death, and with it their mother’s descent into near madness, had torn them apart so violently, caused them to make decisions that seemed to be mere cries for help, as they were incapable of coping with their destinies, and perhaps also with themselves. 

They had once loved each other… Three sisters, so different, and yet once their hearts had beaten as one. Yet, in a way, they had been the same. They had once loved each other. But now? Now, they were strangers now it seemed as though they had never known each other, as though their past was erased from their memories, their minds, as though… 

How young they had been… How young they had been when Cygnus Black had left this world and taken their childhood from them, how young, how… It had been so soon. It had been so soon, too soon, too soon they had lost their innocence, too soon their lives had ended as grief had torn them apart, caused them to lose hold, and to fall, and to never cease falling into the abyss of emptiness. 

How young they had been… And how young they were still, as Bellatrix, the eldest who had always been so strong, who would never allow herself to show any sign of weakness no matter how desperate, no matter how broken she, too, might be, was only twenty-five… 

Bellatrix. She had been the first to go, to slip away from her old life, had been the first to turn her back to her sisters, and to her mother, disgusted by what she perceived to be weakness when it truth it was nothing but sorrow. 

Her eyes… They had once been so full of love, so full of passion, but now? Now they were cold. Terrifying. The passion was still there, would never fade, yet she had dedicated everything to a war she was to fight with such pride, had dedicated it all to _him._ To him, whose name she would never dare to speak, to him, whom she had so fully given herself to… She would fight… For him she would fight. Of course she would fight, Bellatrix had always been a warrior, willing to do everything, anything at all. Willing to give even her own life. 

Her life… She had lost her life long before, would refuse to realise even now that she had also lost herself. 

Had she truly forgotten about her family? Had she truly…? She would scarcely visit, scarcely speak, too focused on what appeared to be her only cause, too focused on…

There had been no chance to keep her from fading from the life she had once known, no chance to make her see… Her expression had become haunted, haunted by the obsession with battle… And they all knew that she was lost. That she would fall. They all were so desperate to save her, but how? How could she possibly be saved when she would not allow them even to speak to her? How? 

It was Andromeda who had been so desperate to convince her sister to stay, who had been so desperate not to lose her… And it was Andromeda, who had not been able to cope when at last she realised the truth. 

She had not been able to cope. She, too, would withdraw into herself, she, too, had nearly lost herself and not been able to cope with her sister’s downfall, with the path she had chosen… Andromeda had not been able to cope, had rebelled against her mother and sisters more than ever before, enclosed her heart to them, as though she had not once adored them so beyond words. 

It had been her despair. Of course it had been her despair that had driven her from her home, of course it had been her despair that had caused her to commit such an unspeakable betrayal, a betrayal that could not possibly be forgiven… Of course it had been her despair, and yet… Yet, to run away, to close her eyes to her family’s sorrow and to run away to marry a… 

How selfish she had been. How selfish she, too, had been, how incredibly selfish… She must have known about the consequences, must have known about… But she had not cared. She had no longer cared for her mother, had no longer cared for her remaining sister, had thought merely about herself as though only she were hurting, as though it were only about her… She had not cared. She had not cared at all, and taken their breath away. 

The remaining sister, the youngest… Narcissa,… The agony had overwhelmed her at times, had nearly drowned her in the moment she began to understand that Andromeda, too, was gone, that her last confidante had left her behind, too… Andromeda, who had been her rock, who… The agony had overwhelmed her at times. 

Narcissa… How could she possibly have remained? How could she possibly have continued life in her childhood home, caring for a grieving, suffering mother day by day and night by night, when there was no one left to hold on to? No one left to give her strength… How could she possibly have gone on when she, too, was falling?

Her wedding to Lucius Malfoy had been for love, for nothing but purest love, a love no different to her parents’, that would endure anything in life, and even in death. It had been for love… And yet it had also been an escape, an escape from her home as otherwise she, too, would have perished. As otherwise… It had been an escape. 

Love… They had once loved each other. Sisters and parents alike, they had once loved, had once adored each other… But now? Now there was nothing. Nothing but emptiness. Nothing but scorn. 

Had it truly been his death? Had it truly been Cygnus’ death that had caused everything to fall apart, that had robbed them of their love? Cygnus... Cygnus, who had always been their rock, the pillar of the family, who had been torn from this world in a battle, a war, that would one day claim them all. Had it truly been him? Or were they destined to live their lives as strangers, to live their lives in solitude, apart from one another and yet still connected through blood? 

They had once loved each other… They had loved each other, and Druella loved them still. It was foolish, perhaps, but she loved them, loved them still, had given everything for her girls and adored them all so fiercely, even now, now as she had watched her family perish before her very eyes, as she had lost husband daughters, so helpless, broken as she lacked the strength to go on without those she needed the most… She loved them still, would never cease to love them, her trembling fingers gently stroking over the parchment that bore their photograph, the photograph she would always keep beneath her pillow as though it were to give her strength. As though only through the photograph her heart were still beating. 

So weak… She had grown so weak, so weary… It was time. It was time to follow her husband, Druella knew, time to leave this forsaken world and to follow Cygnus into the hereafter, time to finally hold him within her arms again… It was time. 

She smiled as she closed her eyes, still remembering her daughters, her three beautiful girls, remembering the days in which they had so loved each other, remembering how happy they had once been… Druella smiled, smiled as she realised that so soon they would be together once more, the three girls reunited, whether it were to be for merely a couple of hours or perhaps even a day. They would be reunited, reunited to bid their farewell to their mother as they had done to their father, their mother who had gone to her rest… Who would be at peace at last.


End file.
